LEWISTON, ID  A Clarkston woman is recovering from multiple injuries after she was buried by an avalanche near McCall before being rescued by fellow snowmobilers.

Melvina Ross, a 46-year-old nurse, suffered a fractured spine and damaged lung after being buried Saturday beneath two riderless snowmobiles carried down the slope by a slide near Hidden Lake.

Ross and her husband were standing at the base of the hill 300 to 400 feet away watching other riders "high-marking" -- riding as far up the slope as possible before losing traction -- when the slide started.

LEWISTON  Twelve snowmobilers tripped an avalanche near McCall that caught nine of them and trapped one under 5 feet of snow.

They all survived Saturday's slide, but a 46-year-old Clarkston, Wash., woman was trapped for five minutes.

She was wearing a tracing beacon, so members of her party were able to find her and dig her out. According to the <a href=http://www.idahocounty.org/>Idaho County</a> Sheriff's Department, she was unconscious when she was found. She was transported by helicopter to a McCall hospital. Her name and condition were not available.

An avalanche hit about 2:30 p.m. in the Brodie Creek drainage north of <a href=http://www.ci.ketchum.id.us/>Ketchum</a>, the sheriff's office reports. The victim was snowmobiling in the area with another person.

Rescue crews, including a dog team, responded to the scene. The body of the missing snowmobiler was recovered at about 5 p.m., the sheriff's office reports.

According to the NPS Morning Report at about 6:30 p.m. on April 5th, dispatchers received notice that a young man had fallen off rocks while hiking near White Rock Wash. Rangers and Mohave County Sheriffs Office personnel responded and found that the 17-year-old Las Vegas boy had died in the fall. Jason Kyle and two friends had been hiking when he decided to attempt to scale a wall. He was not using any climbing gear or safety equipment of any kind. Kyle reached a point where he could no longer go up the face of the rock. He was attempting to climb back down when he fell about 75 feet to his death. This area of the park is popular among hikers who visit the Arizona Hot Springs on Lake Mohave. White Rock Wash is located in Arizona and can be accessed at about mile marker 5 on U.S. 93 (south of Hoover Dam). This is the parks fourth fatality this year. [Submitted by Roxanne Dey, Public Affairs Specialist] http://americasroof.com/wp/archives/200 ... in-arizona/

News24 reports a leech lodged in the nostril of a Hong Kong woman after she washed her face in a stream.

The woman did not realise anything was wrong until two weeks later when she felt there was something in her nose. A first attempt by the family doctor to remove it failed due to profuse nosebleed while a second attempt in hospital was also unsuccessful as the leech retracted into her nose, the journal said in its report on the rare complaint. Doctors finally managed to remove it using a nasal spray to anaesthetise the five-centimetre-long bloodsucker a month after it had invaded her nostril.
After two minutes, the leech slowly moved out of the antrum (sinus) and was retrieved with forceps, it said.
This form of leech infestation has not been previously reported, it added.
The woman could have suffocated if the leech had attached itself to her larynx, the journal said.

I did not notice any leeches in the water, the 55-year-old housewife told the South China Morning Post.
I am used to seeing all these worms in the water while hiking.

Canoe reports a 23-year-old student in Canadas Kananaskis Country Sheep River Wildlife Sanctuary survived a wrestling match with a cougar by throwing it off of him. Peter Bysterveld said he was walking with his girlfriend when the cougar  about the size of a dog  charged him. He fell and it bit his leg. He then stood up and picked it up by its legs and threw it. The cat then walked away.